The Promise.

We have really enjoyed reading a stunning new book called ‘The Promise.’ It is written by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Laura Carlin and the book is the winner of the 2014 English Association Picture Book Award for best fiction.

Click on this image to link to a website all about the book.

Here is a video of the author reading the book. Next week some of the children are going to do their own recording, using expression to create their own reading of this wonderful story.

Inspired by the beginning of the story the children wrote about the setting and illustrated the city at the beginning of the city using pastels and charcoal.

Later in the week, when we had read the whole story we created pictures of a beautiful world, full of trees, flowers, butterflies. birds and bees.

The children have also written some beautiful descriptions of these settings. I shall add some examples of our writing soon.

We have also been learning about David Hockney as we are going to Salts Mill on Thursday to see an exhibition of his work. We saw how he had created pictures in lots of different ways, but that recently he has used created digital art on the iPad and computer. We used Purple Mash to create our own stunning pictures based on the settings in ‘The Promise.’ The children have saved their work in their own Purple Mash accounts, so please ask them to show you how they created them. They can use all the tools on Purple Mash at home too, and then save their work in their own files and share their work with me by placing it in the 2F folder too. (Use the Purple Mash page to link directly to Farsley’s Log in page on Purple Mash.)

Next week we are going to think about the character of the girl in ‘The Promise,’ and we are going to be doing a drama with Mr Wilkinson and a group of students from Leeds University. I know it will be really inspiring and will help us to be really creative writers.

5 responses to “The Promise.”

I think your work is BRILLIANT!! You’ve given me lots of ideas… I especially love the difference between the pastel and Purple Mash pictures. Carry on using as many tools as you can to make pictures – you’ll never get bored…

As Nic says, you’ve carried on the message of The Promise, and that’s the most important thing…

Enjoy the David Hockney show – he’s one of my favourite artists and I love visiting Salts Mill.

And please carry on the good work – I look forward to seeing everything else you write and draw!

Wow! This is wonderful. This is exactly what I wanted The Promise to do when I wrote it, to inspire children to think about the message it carries and to write their own stories and make their own pictures. I love it that you are writing sequels that continue the story of planting beyond the end of the book.

This sounds like a lovely book and the art work that the children have done is wonderful to see. I like Hockney’s use of colour and I can see that reflected in your work. I look forward to reading some of the writing soon.

This looks like exciting stuff. Reading with expression is a very important skill, so it is great that you are going to be able to practice this next week. I am teaching my daughter how to do this when she is reading at home – she’s in Y1 so a year younger than you lot! You’re never too young to try something new.

I had a look at some of your books this week – you have created incredible drawings to set the scene for the story. You are all clearly working hard and putting your all into your work. That’s what great learners do! The word jazz you used to describe the ugly city was fantastic. Words that show you what a place is like are brilliant as they take your reader into the setting.

I am very excited because on Wednesday we are going to be meeting up to create a story and go on a drama adventure together. I hope that you are up for it!